By Charles Elmore
Delray Beach is requiring new signs on private parking lots within six months to combat what a staff report calls “numerous, ongoing reports of non-transparent and sometimes predatory practices employed by certain operators.”
The action approved 5-0 in a Feb. 18 City Commission vote represents a tangible response to what stunned drivers say have been parking bills reaching $96 or more for some movie, shopping or restaurant trips, as documented by The Coastal Star last year.
Still, the ordinance bumps into limits on what municipalities can do.
Cities can write sign ordinances, and in this case try to alert residents and visitors that these are not city-owned lots, for example. Under state law, though, city officials cannot cap the rates.
“This is all great and I’m going to support it, but I wish these efforts trickled down more to the end users and the people that are being victimized by these lots, unfortunately,” Commissioner Rob Long said.
“But I think this is still great and we shouldn’t let perfect be the enemy of the good,” Long said.
Making prices clear
One issue that could complicate the sign ordinance is the practice of “dynamic” pricing, comparable to the way ride-share companies maintain fluid rates based on local conditions and market demand. A ride could cost more on, say, a busy Saturday night than a slow Tuesday, the concept goes.
If that kind of pricing is in play, it could prove tricky to sum up coherent parking rate information on a metal sign that is presumed to last for a while and not be replaced daily.
“One of the biggest pushbacks we have from the operators is the fee isn’t always the same every day or every time of the day,” said Anthea Gianniotes, the city’s development services director.
Her stance is “if you’re going to have it at that rate, and it’s $20 an hour, put it on the sign, somehow or another,” Gianniotes told commissioners.
A sign design in the ordinance package shows how city officials could picture it working, using fictitious rates for display purposes.
The sign says “Paid Public Parking,” with “Hourly Rate: $10” and “Event Rate: $35” as an example. The sign then says, “Overstay or Non-Payment Penalty: $150.”
The sign also shows a way to include telephone and email contacts for a fictional private lot operator. A red horizontal bar at the bottom of the sign, with white lettering, notes it is “not a city-owned lot.”
No more surprises
A big point in all this is “identifying the rates so people are not getting surprised when they come visit the city or they come downtown,” Gianniotes explained during a first reading of the ordinance on Jan. 21.
“As you know, we’ve had a lot of complaints from our residents that they’re a little bit surprised by getting parking tickets in private lots, and kind of mistaking them for city lots,” Gianniotes said.
A state law effective July 1 of last year sketched out some guidelines on what private lot signs must say, set down rules for appeals and late fees, and granted a 15-minute grace period before fees kick in.
Private lots held to account
Earlier, the Florida Attorney General’s Office signed an “assurance of voluntary compliance” with at least one private parking company operating in Delray Beach, among other places, requiring a payment of $30,000 from the company to make restitution to eligible consumers, records show.
That company was Professional Parking Management Corp., which has offices in Fort Lauderdale. It did not admit wrongdoing in an agreement signed Sept. 1, 2023, that calls on it not to engage in unfair and deceptive trade practices.
A company official reacted a day after the Delray Beach commission passed its ordinance.
“Professional Parking Management is always seeking to clearly communicate with our customers and the general public regarding private parking facilities we work with and enforce, their usage rules and rates, and other helpful information,” company spokesman Robert Leonard said. “A Florida state law adopted last year — which PPM and many in the private parking industry supported — requires many of the same signage and notice requirements as this new local ordinance, most of which were things PPM was already doing at our facilities.”
Complaints filed
Many private lots promote the convenience of paying by a phone app, without traditional gates or attendants. Then they sometimes employ technology that takes pictures of license plates to mail letters to drivers, claiming they failed to pay or overstayed.
In complaint records, Sharron Feldman of Boynton Beach said she was charged $96.30 for parking in a lot in Delray Beach, even though she just drove through and never actually parked.
“It is outrageous that this company can demand money for a service that we never used, threaten us with a collection agency, and force us to waste a good deal of time and energy on this matter,” Feldman said.
Among other complaints from the last two years, Chase Krusbe of Jupiter said he parked in a garage in Delray Beach and thought he paid in full. Then he got mail saying he owed $96.75.
“They claim the charge is for ‘overstaying,’” he said. “I don’t know what that means. I parked. I paid. I left.”
The ordinance language says the sign must include “parking rate, including peak hour and special event parking.”
It also says, “It shall be unlawful to charge a rate or fee higher than the rate published on the posted signage or displayed on pay kiosks.”
Will it help? That might remain a dynamic issue for some time to come.
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